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No need to worry about that tailgate tire; the weight of the engine is in the bed, and with kickstand down, you could haul that beautiful beermer to Alaska! I miss my ol' K100, was a blast driving down the Oregon coast in April!

I have an 09 1250 Bandit.It weighs about 550. I carry it in the back of my truck from time to time.
I load it by letting the bike do the work. I have the engine running in 1st gear.
I have 1 ramp for the bike and 1 for me. I walk up the other ramp while holding the bike and feathering the clutch and the bike climbs the ramp.
It sounds a bit scary, but works well.
I try to find a hill to back up to when I unload to cut the angle the ramps are at.
I have never worried about the strength of the cables. I believe they are more than strong enough. A guy at my work once pushed down on a tailgate with a forklift by mistake. The tailgate bent in the centre, and the cables held.

The Bandit is one of the best (and highly underrated) bikes out there. I had a '99 B12 - best motor EVER!

I owned an '04 Hayabusa after the Bandit and now have an '07 BMW R1200RT.

You should never haul a bike on its kickstand. There are multiple reasons, a couple of the easy ones: 1. The suspension of the bike is now locked, the jamming against bumps has cracked frames. 2. you are pulling the weight of the bike down on 2 sq. in. as well as at an angle all of which stresses the straps. Beds dent, I've seen wood floors give out, kick stands break and the right hand straps give way etc...

^^^This^^^

I've been riding ~25+ years and agree 100%.

Sidestands are typically cast pieces designed to hold a small fraction of the bikes weight. Think about how much of the bikes weight you "lift" when you tip the bike upright off the sidestand.

They are not engineered to handle any type of dynamic loads whatsoever. Properly cinching down on the straps on an improperly loaded (sitting on sidestand) bike adds tremendous loads to the stand.

I've seen people strap bikes down on the centre stand as well - essentially just as bad. Where the sidestand was taking ~1/3 of the load (shared with both tires) the centre stand is being asked to take most of the weight of the bike.

With either stand scenario, you're also defeating any benefits from the bikes suspension.

Sidestands are typically cast pieces designed to hold a small fraction of the bikes weight. Think about how much of the bikes weight you "lift" when you tip the bike upright off the sidestand.

They are not engineered to handle any type of dynamic loads whatsoever. Properly cinching down on the straps on an improperly loaded (sitting on sidestand) bike adds tremendous loads to the stand.

I've seen people strap bikes down on the centre stand as well - essentially just as bad. Where the sidestand was taking ~1/3 of the load (shared with both tires) the centre stand is being asked to take most of the weight of the bike.

With either stand scenario, you're also defeating any benefits from the bikes suspension.

I've been riding 26 years and NEVER had any problem with kickstands! Old wives tale to be sure. Once the forks are compressed, they hold the weight, not the kickstand. The stand is just a stabilzer; and if you are properly strapped to the bed of the truck, there will be no movement in the bike, as it will become a part of the bed, thus, riding on the vehicle suspension! The side stand is a stabilizer, the center stand is load-bearing, different animal. I would not go to far on a center stand, unless the front wheel what wrenched down and touching the bed, thus, changing the weight pivot point, and the center stand becomes a stabilizer!

I have read too many posts about the tailgate bouncing up & bad things happening to the tailgate when it drops onto the hitch or bouncing on the road, in both cases, the wire cables were still attached

I have read too many posts about the tailgate bouncing up & bad things happening to the tailgate when it drops onto the hitch or bouncing on the road, in both cases, the wire cables were still attached

What's really funny, if these people the time prepping their load instead of filming, they probably would have been better off. Still some great laughs, thanks!